During September and October of 1994, I posted a survey
to various newsgroups on the Usenet asking people about their
experiences with hallucinogenic drugs. Here I would like
to share, as was promised, the results of this survey.
At the time of posting the survey I stated that my intention
was to show that there is more to the effects of hallucinogens
than merely inducing hallucinations and delusions, as is
currently believed in the medical and psychiatric community
(many notable exceptions notwithstanding!). Thus, I will now
state that the purpose of this survey was to test the
hypothesis that the effects of psychedelic drugs (e.g. LSD,
mescaline, peyote, etc.) are similar to the effects of a
phenomena known in esoteric literature as the awakening
of the kundalini.

The idea of kundalini derives from Tantric yoga and refers to
a supposed ``energy'' that lies latent in average people at the
base of the spine. By practicing specific yogic exercises, one
supposedly can ``awaken'' this kundalini, which in turn
leads to severe alterations in consciousness including the
onset of psychic abilities and possibly conferring enlightenment
(see Table 1 below). These Tantric ideas have also been
adopted by certain Western occult traditions throughout
this century.

However, what strikes me is the overwhelming similarity between
reports by people who have undergone kundalini awakening
and what occurs to people who have taken hallucinogenic
drugs. According to Charles Tart, both of these states
can be considered altered states of consciousness (ACS) [1].
However, accounts of the subjective qualities of both these ACS
show that the phenomenology of both states overlap to a
considerable degree. Table 1 summarizes the effects of
kundalini awakening at physiological, sensory, emotional,
cognitive and spiritual levels. These effects come about
through the specific exercises of kundalini yoga, which are
often breathe control exercises, though there are
antectodal accounts of the spontaneous occurrence of these
symptoms in people.

The logic of the survey design was to recruit respondents
experienced in psychedelic drug usage and determine if they
have experienced some of the effects, listed in Table 1,
associated with kundalini awakening when under the influence
of psychedelic drugs. Therefore, all survey respondents
were psychedelic drug users. No attempt was made to recruit
people who may have experienced bona fide kundalini
awakening because of the relative rarity of this occurrence.

*1. Recall past lives. (@)
*2. Enhanced intuition and psychic powers (siddhis). (@)
*3. Feelings of unseen guidance and protection. (@)
*4. Emptying of the mind. (#)
*5. There is an experience of being a witness in the body.(#)
*6. Questions may arise in the mind and be spontaneously
answered (revelation or enhanced insight). (#)
*7. The hidden meaning behind the (Indian) scriptures are
revealed. (@)
*8. Mystical experience

Table 1: List of Effects of Awakened Kundalini. Note; (*)
lines of the list are attributes identified in the
psychedelic drug survey. Lines marked (@) are from [2] and
lines marked (#) are from [3].

Methods
A survey consisting of 38 questions related to the
psychedelic drug experience was posted to the Internet. The
survey was designed as follows: demographic data was asked
to obtain a respondent profile. Drug usage questions were
asked to gauge the experience of the respondent with using
psychedelic drugs. The remaining questions focused on the
phenomenology of psychedelic drugs. Drug effects fell into
five categories: physiological, sensory, emotional,
cognitive and spiritual. Nineteen questions referred
specifically to effects of awakened kundalini. The
remaining questions regarded established facets of the
psychedelic experience.

There was no mention in the survey at all about kundalini.
As far as respondents were concerned, they were solely
reporting on their psychedelic experiences, so in this
sense, the survey was blinded and respondents did not know
they were being asked if they had ever experienced effects
of awakened kundalini.

Completed surveys were received through the authors e-mail
address and the data entered into a database (Microsoft
Access, ver 1.1) where results were tabulated. For
statistical analysis, yes/no questions were treated as a
poll and the 95% confidence interval associated with
percentiles calculated based on the final number of
respondents.

Results
A. Demographics.

Sixty one people responded to the survey (n = 61); 15% were
female, 85% were male. Similar male/female ratios were seen
in an OBE study previously conducted, suggesting that
current Internet use is roughly 75-85% male. The age
distribution was: 14-18 years (6.6%), 19-25 years (62%), 26-
30 years (20%), 31-40 years (9.8%), 41-50 years (1.6%) .
The distribution by country was: Australia (8.2%), Canada
(13.1%), Finland (3.3%), Ireland (1.6%), Netherlands
(3.3%), Sweden (1.6%), Thailand (1.6%), UK (8.2%), USA
(59%).

Clearly, this demographic data shows that roughly 60% of
respondents were male, college-age students from the USA.
The other 40% of respondents represent the countries of
Northern Europe and Canada. Such demographic data is
indicative primarily of who is using the Internet where.
Usage
Polydrug (i.e. used more than just psychedelic drugs) users
constituted 95% of the sample. 58% of respondents used
psychedelic drugs more than 20 times. The length of time
using psychedelics was: < 1 year (29%), 1 to 5
years (33%), > 5 years (37%). Respondents seem roughly
equally distributed regarding length of time using
psychedelics based on a 1 and 5 year distinction. Half of
the users take psychedelics a few times a year, the other
half take them a few times a month. The most prominent
psychedelic used was LSD (95%), followed by psylocibincontaining
mushrooms (82%), with smaller use of mescaline
(18%) and peyote (13%). 45% reported using other
psychedelics including morning glory seeds,
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine - ``ecstasy'') or
obscure compounds such as DMT (dimethyltryptophan).

For some of the questions pertaining to psychedelic effects,
respondents were asked simple yes/no or more/less questions
which could be easily tabulated. Respondents were also
allowed to give a textual elaboration not amenable to simple
statistical analysis (text data not discussed here). Table 2
shows the results of the polling questions, broken down by
category. For binary polling questions (i.e. yes/no or
more/less; questions with only two responses), a 95%
confidence interval could be calculated assuming a Gausian
distribution.

Statistical tests of independence were performed on 2x2
combinations of demographic data with psychedelic effects.
All variables tested showed statistical independence. That
is to say, there was no statistical evidence that any
reported psychedelic effects were dependant upon such
demographic factors as age, sex, or length of time using
psychedelic drugs (not shown). However, such tests of
independence were only marginally valid because of the
relatively small sample size.

* 1. Has taking hallucinogens
created long term changes
in your personality? 80.3% 19.7% +/-10%
2. Out-of-body experience
induced by hallucinogens 39.3% 60.7% +/-12%
* 3. Have you ever had a spiritual
or religious experience on
hallucinogens? 86.9% 13.1% +/-8%
* 4. Has use of hallucinogens
made you more or less spiritual
or not affected (N/A) your
spirituality? 71% MORE 3% LESS 26% N/A

The data in Table 2 essentially replicates previous work on
the effects of psychedelic drugs [4]. This data, when
compared to Table 1, shows definite overlap in the
phenomenology of hallucinogen effects and kundalini
awakening. Some of these effects occur with high frequency.
For example, 75% +/-11% of respondents reported feelings of
chills and vibrations. Within this subset, 49% directly
reported that these chills or vibrations occurred on the
back or along the spine, thus describing a prominent feature
of the kundalini experience; chills and vibrations along the
spine. In the theory of kundalini yoga such sensation is
associated with the ascent of the kundalini through the
chakra system.

When asked if the use of hallucinogens has made the person
more or less spiritual or if the drug has not affected their
spirituality, 71% of the people said 'more', with 26% saying
the drug has not affected their spirituality. This
question of course relates to the mystical aspects of the
kundalini experience.

A number of other kundalini associated phenomena were
reported by respondents with less frequency including:
alterations in perception of body temperature, alterations
in sexual desire, audio hallucinations, and synesthesia
(mixing of senses). These factors were at or below the 50%
frequency.

It is interesting to note that roughly 40% +/-12% of
respondents reported having an out-of-body experience (OBE)
while on psychedelic drugs. This frequency suprised even
the author, for OBEs are not usually associated with
psychedelic drugs. Based on conversations with one
respondent reporting psychedelic induced OBEs (p-OBEs), it
is clear that these have a different nature from ``regular''
OBEs, the latter being associated with dreams and sleep [5].
The p-OBE appears to involve the complete absorption of
the subject in the content of the visual imagery and is
characterized by a relatively formless and ineffable set of
experiences. This is in contrast to ``regular'' OBEs which
are essentially lucid dreams and contain well defined
content and environments and can usually be expressed in
words effectively [6].

Taken as a whole, this polling data strongly suggests that
the effects of psychedelic drugs are very similar to those
of awakened kundalini and that it is reasonable to compare
these two ASC. An important implication of the idea that
psychedelic drugs create a state very similar to awakened
kundalini is that, by furthering our understanding of the
physiochemical action of psychedelic drugs on the body and
brain, we may also discover the physiochemical changes
associated with awakening of the kundalini.

Common Mechanisms?

The similarity of the psychedelic and kundalini experiences
suggests common, or at least overlapping mechanisms of
action in both these ACS. Aside from the phenomenological
evidence that these two states are qualitatively similar, is
there any other evidence in support of the similarity of
these two states? Consider the following evidence:

1. LSD binds to serotonergic neurons in the raphe nuclei of
the brain stem.

It is known that psychedelics mimic the
action of a neurotransmitter called serotonin [7].
Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter in various brain
regions, but psychedelics seem to exert their greatest
effect at serotonergic neurons located in the brain stem, in
clusters of neurons called the raphe nuclei [8]. The raphe
nuclei are known to play an important role in regulating
autonomic nervous system activity, regulating sleep-wake
cycles, and states of arousal [9].

2. It is also known that kundalini yoga is based primarily
on breathing exercises.

The centers that regulate breathing are also located in
the brain stem in areas close to the raphe nucleus, and in
areas that have neural connections to the raphe nucleus [10].

3. It is a relatively common experience amongst psychedelic
users to feel sensations of pressure at the back of the neck
during the drug experience.

4. From the survey, 92.7% +/-7% of respondents reported the
inability to fall asleep when on psychedelics, as well as
other unusual autonomic nervous system activity, thus
further implicating brain stem functional alterations.

All of this points to something of great relevance going on
in the brain stem. The ``trigger'' region in the nervous system
for both the exercises of kundalini yoga and hallucinogens
appears to be the brain stem. Something occurs in the brain
stem that has tremendous consequences both throughout the
body and within the higher regions of the brain, leading to
the drastic alterations in consciousness characterized by
these two very similar ACS.

Such evidence leads to the following prediction: noninvasive
brain scans (such as MRI, PET scans, or EEGs) performed on
individuals undergoing bona fide kundalini awakening should
be similar to such scans of individuals under the influence
of psychedelic drugs, and both groups will be different from
controls. To this author's knowledge, such observations
have not been made yet.

Conclusion
If indeed the contention that the psychedelic drug induced
state is similar to the state of aroused kundalini is true,
this has many implications. The most important
implication in this author's opinion is that if psychedelic
drugs can cause symptoms of kundalini awakening, then there must
be a definite biological basis for this phenomena.

Clearly, psychedelic drugs can serve as a reasonably
reproducible tool for the study of altered states, though
the action of these compounds in the nervous system is only
incompletely understood at present [11] and consensus as
to the nature of psychedelic effects is lacking. Comparing
kundalini awakening with psychedelic effects is a step towards
alleviating this lack of consensus about the nature of
psychedelic effects.

If the connection between psychedelics and kundalini is
valid, then it is expected that the physiological changes
associated with both states will be similar. Thus, by using
psychedelic drugs as a ``model system'' of kundalini awakening,
and determining the mode of action of psychedelics, we will
thereby come to understand, at least in part, the physiological
changes associated with awakened kundalini. Such work promises to
unravel the biological basis of the siddhis (or psychic
powers) and the process of enlightenment associated with
kundalini awakening. What this means is the possibility of
joining parapsychology and the study of paranormal and
esoteric states of consciousness to the rest of the world of
accepted science, in particular neurobiology. To bring the
study of the so-called paranormal into the fold of the
accepted scientific disciplines is no trivial feat;
psychedelics offer such a tool if used reasonably. Furthermore,
the introduction of Eastern concepts related to kundalini yoga
into a neurobiological framework could serve to enlarge
the Western view of the potentials of the human brain and mind.